​Passion number one - Working with patients. It’s where my research career started and is an area I hold close to my heart. Patients represent the ultimate end consumer and the pharmaceutical industry (having held clinicians in this esteemed role for so many years) are now embracing that. I am fascinated with the way in which people cope in such different ways with illness and health issues and have conducted research in many therapy areas over the years, including those of a private or highly personal nature that have needed to be managed extremely sensitively.

Providing Research That Delves Deep

Passion number two– Early Stage Clinical Development. Drug development manufacturers are now investing in market research at a much earlier stage in the clinical development of their products. Several years ago I experienced a notable shift in the types of projects I was getting involved in, moving away from testing advertisements, marketing materials and packaging demanded by products close to or already being marketed, and towards early stage work, helping to develop and test target product profiles and likely uptake for drugs in the Phase II and III stages of clinical development. This in turn meant conducting in-depth interviews with Key Opinion Leaders, Payers and highly experienced clinicians, something I might have found somewhat daunting earlier in my early career! But the grounding I had developed over those early years of researching primary and secondary care physicians has served me well and I thoroughly enjoy talking to the decision makers and uncovering the insights that you can gain by doing so. And I find this type of work so rewarding – to have played a small role in helping companies shape a product which is going to meet a real unmet need and see it come to market is a feeling like no other!

Over my career I have worked for small to medium market research agencies (PMSI, Insight, Isis) and consultancies (Apex Consulting) specialising in healthcare research largely looking at marketing opportunities for pharmaceutical medicines, diagnostic tools and medical devices. I provide project management as well as ad-hoc research tasks and also mentor research teams. You can read some of the testimonials kindly provided by clients over the years here or by clicking on the testimonial link.

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I have three particular passions in my working life ...​

Passion number three– Wearing my other hat! I love training others in the skills needed to do the work that I do. How to write a questionnaire or a discussion guide that really drills down to key issues. How to develop rapport quickly with a respondent. What to do with all that data – how to organise it in a usable manner. And importantly, how to present findings to clients, so that the messages are clearly understood. To read more about my training capabilities click here.

When I studied for my first degree in Psychology back in the late 1980’s, my absolute favourite part was designing and undertaking the research for my final year dissertation.

I’m a natural researcher and love the creative process of designing a project, talking to people, examining data and pulling it all together into a story that allows clients to move forwards in their decisions. I went on to specialise in research, undertaking a Masters degree in Research Psychology and Statistics and conducted a large scale research project for the UK charity 'Changing Faces'. My role was to examine the impact of facial disfigurement on patients and families and the effectiveness of an innovative new service, providing psychosocial support to those affected. In my mid-twenties, I had my first research paper published and my research career was born … and quite honestly, I haven’t looked back.​